It's that time once again: time to start planning for the 2016 Python Language Summit! This year the summit will be at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon, USA, on May 28th. Sadly, again this year Michael Foord won't be in attendance. Barry Warsaw and I are running the summit for the second time.
The purpose of the event is to disseminate information and spark conversation among Python core developers. It's our once-a-year chance to get together and hash out where we're going and what we're doing, face-to-face.
We're making two minor changes this year. First: we're going to experiment with lightning talks! We may have a bunch at the end, or we may throw some in between longer presentations--not sure yet, we'll see how it goes. In the grand tradition of lightning talks, they'll be scheduled exclusively on the day of the summit. We'll provide a whiteboard or other drawable surface in case you don't show up with slides, and wild gesticulation isn't enough.
Second: we're using a Google Form to collect signups. This one form lets you request an invitation to the summit, and also optionally propose a talk. Please note: filling out the form does not guarantee you an invitation. Space is limited; if you're a core developer, your request for invitation *will* be honored, but we may need to restrict attendance for others. (Sorry!) Barry and I will email the invitations separately.
Signups are open as of now, and will remain open for six weeks, closing April 12th. But it'll only take you a minute to fill out the form, so you might as well do it right now! Signing up sooner will make our lives easier, too.
You'll find a link to the signup form on the summit's official web page, here:
https://us.pycon.org/2016/events/langsummit/One final note. Again this year we're inviting Jake Edge from Linux Weekly News to attend the summit and provide press coverage. In case you missed it, Jake did a phenomenal job of covering last year's summit, giving the reader a very thorough overview of what happened.
https://lwn.net/Articles/639773/Some attendees were worried last year about sharing private or proprietary information in front of a reporter. Jake, Barry, and I want to assure you that it's just not a problem. Jake's not there to embarrass anybody or get anybody in trouble. He said he'd be happy to work with any attendees about any discussions you want considered "off the record".
We hope to see you at the summit!
[BL]arry